I don’t usually cut flowers from my garden. I like to leave them in place for passers-by to enjoy. However, with freezing temperatures approaching, I decided to cut a few hyacinths to bring in the house. Their fragrance is remarkable, so I’m glad to have them inside. Have a lovely day!
I managed to get our roses bushes pruned a few weeks ago, which was a little early for pruning, but I wanted to get the yard spruced up for a wedding. Now the next big chore is pruning the rest of our shrubs: hydrangeas*, crape myrtles, several varieties of spirea, viburnums, sand cherries, beauty berries, boxwoods, mugo pines, cedars and junipers. No wonder that it seems like a lot to do!
This is a hydrangea grandiflora paniculata which blooms best with severe blooming in the spring. It is definitely worth the work!
* Note, spring-blooming hydrangeas should be pruned after blooming. Those that bloom in summer and autumn should be pruned in spring.
Despite keeping it covered for the winter, our beautiful fountain is showing damage from the extreme weather this year. I am trying to convince myself to consider it “added charm,” yet I hate to see some of our lions heads crumbling. Oh, what to do? I guess, just wait for spring. Once the fountain is running and splendor has returned to the garden, the old beasts will seem more at ease.
In honor of Library Lovers’ Month, the Manhattan Public Library has invited people to say what they love about the library. In addition to the obvious things – the book collection and the helpful staff – I love its trees. Pictured here are Red Bud and White Bud trees by the Poyntz Avenue entrance. I can’t wait to see them in bloom again this spring!
Even by Kansas standards, our recent weather has been unusually variable. It has been gorgeous and sunny the past few days with high temperatures in the mid-80’s. (In case you don’t remember, we had snow last week.) The warm weather has stimulated plants to put on a lot of growth and it is really starting to look like Spring; and yet cold weather is supposed to roll back in tomorrow with the chance of snow Thursday and Friday. That would be snow in May – not very good for the garden, even if it doesn’t stick around. So, I decided that I’d better enjoy the flowers while they last and get some photos of them today. I’m so glad that I did. Photographing flowers makes one stop and really look at them. What a nice thing!
What a difference a day or two makes. After the beautiful Spring day we had for the garden wedding on Sunday, this morning we are back to winter. With snow falling and skies getting darker by the minute, it feels more like January than late April. Brrr …
Thankfully, today was a beautiful Spring day for a garden wedding – a surprising fact given the unseasonably cold weather we have been experiencing as of late. Here are a few photos that I quickly took while we were getting ready for the joyous event.
Sand Cherries (Prunus x cistena) are one of my favorite ornamental shrubs. While pruning ours this week, I decided to save some of the cuttings to use in use in a floral arrangement. Notice how the bright burgundy leaves go so nicely with these hot pink roses. (Note: watch for ants and other undesirables whenever bringing cuttings inside.)
The Sandy Cherry on the southern side of our house is just starting to leaf out, so its prunings were perfect for my arrangement. The shrubs on the north side are about a week or so behind. I’ll try to get some more photos when the shrubs are in bloom. In the meantime, Happy Spring!
Muscari On The Rocks …
Abraham Lincoln once wisely said – or wrote, I’m not sure which – “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” I had to keep reminding myself of this yesterday while pruning my “thorn bushes”. Surely, soon I shall be posting photos of my beautiful roses and sharing their stories. The blooms from Spring ’till the first Autumn freeze are well worth a few days of torture every March or April. However, I have resolved that any future rose selections for my garden will be less densely thorned than this beast which tore through my gloves and jeans. Oh, the things we do for beauty!
A Taste of Morning 